At the present time an increasingly large number of people are spending their working hours at a word processor or computer keyboard performing thousands of repetitive actions throughout the day.
A similar forced, repetitious movement of the wrist is an every day experience for table-based assembly-line personnel manufacturing different small devices.
These working conditions can often cause repetitive strain injuries to hands or wrists of the assemblymen or keyboard operators.
Many apparatuses and systems have been developed to solve this health problem.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,056,743 issued Oct. 15, 1991 to Zwar et al. teaches a system which includes a hand board and a pair of arm support pads sliding over the hand board.
However, this system requires a specially designed hand board attached to the keyboard and having a top sliding surface of polished stainless steel to provide a required low friction characteristic. In addition, the pads are freely positioned and not are not secured to the hands of the operator with the resulting risk of the hands sliding off the pads.
Another type of wrist support is taught by U.S. Pat. No. 5,158,256 issued Oct. 27, 1992 to Gross. The apparatus therein includes the assembly of a specially designed platform for supporting the keyboard and providing a guide slot so that two wrist pads received in the slot are guided for movement along with the platform.
However, the apparatus is of heavy and bulky design with a several different metal parts and requires complex adjustments during operation. Numerous moving metal parts will require servicing such as lubrication and maintenance at regular intervals. In addition, other prior systems and apparatuses include a keyboard with an elevated wrist support bar, or an arm support attached to a table or a chair.
However, all of the known prior art apparatuses are relatively bulky and expensive assemblies which still cannot accommodate really fluid and rapid motion of the hands of the operator over a keyboard with maximum efficiency and minimal fatigue and discomfort.